McMurphy’s Law: Which states are the best in college football?

College football fans debate anything and everything. Best team, best conference, best player and even who they want as their next coach.

What can’t be argued is which state is college football’s best this season — at least based on combined winning percentage. And if there’s a best, of course, there’s also a worst.

The best and worst college football states in 2024? You might be surprised.

There are 41 states that have FBS programs. Of the 41, nine states only have one FBS program, so we’re only considering the 32 states with multiple FBS programs.

This is based on combined winning percentages of all FBS programs per state through games last weekend. It’s not based on strength of schedule or conference. Y’all can debate that.

The best? Start spreading the news: New York, New York. The Big Apple is tied with Iowa and Oregon as the states off to the best starts. New York, Iowa and Oregon each have winning percentages of .833.

New York features Army (6-0), Syracuse (5-1) and Buffalo (4-2). Oregon has the undefeated Ducks (6-0) and Oregon State (4-2), while Iowa has the undefeated Cyclones (6-0) and Hawkeyes (4-2).

The state with the worst combined record is New Mexico. The Lobos and Aggies are only 3-9 this season (25%), followed by Mississippi 36.8% and Massachusetts (38.4%).

States With Best CFB Winning Percentages

States With Worst CFB Winning Percentages

A New Mr. October?

Former Yankees great Reggie Jackson is the original Mr. October. In the college football ranks, however, that nickname currently applies to Georgia’s Kirby Smart.

Entering Saturday’s epic showdown at Texas, Smart has won 14 consecutive games in October, the nation’s longest current winning streak in October. Georgia’s last loss in October was to Alabama on Oct. 17, 2020, nearly four years to the day of Saturday’s game in Austin, Texas.

Ironically, Ohio State’s Ryan Day was 17-0 in his career in October, until last week’s loss at Oregon.

Since Georgia’s last October loss in 2020, here are the best current 14-game October records entering this weekend.

Unlucky 13

I’m not sure what this means exactly, except that a lot of really, really, really good coaches haven’t done well in their last 13 games. I’m not judging.

All schedules are not treated equal, but it’s amazing that these nine Power Conference coaches are all three games under .500 in their last 13 games.